The Four Horsemen
by DMR14
Summary: This doesn't really fit into the canonical Mechwarrior/Battletech universe, but it's the only thing that comes close to describing it. So sit back and enjoy!


The harsh desert sun beat down on the scorched sands, gradually bleaching them a dazzling white. Massive rock formations were scattered all over the dunes, many of which being pockmarked with bullet holes and charred from the nearby detonation of high explosives. But for the man-made marks, it would have been a beautiful landscape.

A series of rhythmic thuds reverberated through the still air. Gradually, it got louder and louder, until the very ground vibrated. Then, it was joined with three more thuds, these ones equal in intensity. They moved toward several strings of much smaller thuds that sounded a lot like automatic gunfire.

The earpiece in Carlisle's ear crackled, and the voice of his friend Leon blared in his ear, "Contact, contact! Ghost Rider, I got a request for support from a Lt. Jacobs! His men are under attack from a battalion of enemy infantry and failing fast! You think we should lend a hand?"

Sighing, Carlisle replied, "Roger that, Reaper. Let the Lieutenant know that the Four Horsemen are inbound hot. Where do they want us?"

"They want us to hit their flank heading north-northeast."

"OK, you heard the man, lock and load!"

The four suits of powered armor looked like something out of _Starship Troopers_. Each suit was over 12 feet tall, with a definite humanoid body structure. The pairs of massive hands gripped equally massive assault weapons, each one capable of leveling a house with a few shots. Most of the Four Horsemen's suits were also equipped with missiles, capable of shooting down low-flying aircraft or destroying tanks with a single launch. All in all, each suit was capable of taking on an entire army by itself, but with four working as a team, they were nearly unstoppable.

Carlisle jacked a magazine of 30mm ammunition into the breech of his autocannon, and hefted it so it was leaning on his "shoulder". He swung his "head" to look at one of his squad mates, saying, "Dom, you ready?"

"Equalizer ready for action," came over the radio, as Dom jacked a round into the breech of the 40mm cannon he carried. The gun was capable of dishing out massive punishment at 400 rounds a minute, with each shell capable of punching through several feet of reinforced concrete. The gun possessed an equally powerful kick that was capable of knocking anyone else's suit off its feet. Dom's suit was the only one capable of taking the recoil, so no one messed with him or his gun.

"Jester, you ready to rock," Carlisle asked the last man of his team. The response came back, "Hell yeah, let's go already!"

Allowing himself a quick smile, Carlisle got down to business. He yelled into the radio, "Rock and roll guys, it's game time! Let's fucking do this!"

With that, the squad stepped faster and faster until it was in a dead run. The ground thundered and shook under the weight of approximately 120 tons of metal running at full speed, and Carlisle reveled in it. Within seconds, they could see the battlefield.

Everything on one side of the battlefield was completely trashed. Everywhere, men were running for their lives as their enemies swarmed over their positions. Carlisle frowned and said, "Reaper, our side looks like they need a little moral boost. Let's go airborne."

Laughing under his breath, Leon replied, "Roger that, Ghost Rider. Drop attack sequence in five…four…three…two…one…"

Abruptly, Carlisle and Leon broke off from Dom and Jester, who continued running at full speed toward the battlefield. They knew exactly what Leon and Carlisle were going to do, and they had planned it down to a T.

Lieutenant Jacobs, his uniform torn and bloodied, muttered under his breath, "Where the hell are those yahoos?"

Suddenly, the whole battlefield got darker. Everyone stopped and looked at the sun, trying to figure out what happened. Then, Carlisle yelled, "Kiss your asses goodbye, because the Four Horsemen have arrived!"

Lieutenant Jacobs dropped his rifle, and said slowly, "What the hell is that?!"

Jester and Dom opened fire with their respective weapons, saturating the enemy ranks with a barrage of high explosive shells that turned entire companies into pink mist. The enemy infantry, not expecting this new attack, turned tail and ran. In a split second, the entire tide of the battle had turned.

Frantic to get away from their vengeful opponents, the infantry ran madly toward their waiting vehicles. Then, in a split second, they all exploded as about 60 tons of heavy metal slammed into the ground. A massive cloud of fire, smoke, and dust engulfed the battlefield, blotting out the sun and ruining visibility. Carlisle's voice echoed through the cloud, "Your day of reckoning has come, fuckers! Tonight, you dine in Hell!"

Caught between several large-caliber autocannons and an entire army out for them, the entire army fell apart, with almost everyone dying in a hail of gunfire. Just as quickly as it started, the battle ended.

As his men celebrated, Lieutenant Jacobs walked toward the Four Horsemen, and yelled, "I need to speak with your CO right now!"

Carlisle "looked" at Leon, and asked, "What do you think? Should we?"

"Why not," Leon replied. "Dom, Jester, dismount. They want us to mingle."

Inside the powered armor, Carlisle opened his eyes, seeing nothing but the inside of the chest armor. It was tinged in red from a small button that lit up near his gloved right hand. Moving his hand slowly, he rested his index finger on it, and pushed down gently.

Lieutenant Jacobs jumped back in surprise as the powered armor suddenly kneeled, and the entire chest armor assembly swung slowly down until it came to stop at the knee. Surprisingly, there were no gushes of steam, no clouds of gas that usually appeared whenever something that high-tech opened up. For the second time that day, Jacobs was pleasantly surprised.

Freeing his arms, legs, and head with the push of a button near his left hand, Carlisle unbuckled his body harness and stepped out into the sunlight. Looking back into his powered armor, Carlisle reached up and yanked off the helmet covering his entire head, revealing a head of shortly cropped brown hair, swept to the right like a wave. The hairstyle reminded Jacobs of the old Earth movie _Top Gun_, while the sunglasses he pulled over his eyes reminded him of the movie _Blade_.

The other three Horsemen did the same thing with their suits, generating small clouds of dust as the massive feet slammed into the ground. Then, in the same general way, the other three men got out of their powered armor and came to join Carlisle in front of Lieutenant Jacobs.

Now that they were all standing in front of him, Jacobs could see how truly different each man was from the rest of his squad mates. Carlisle was tall, with wide shoulders and a trim waist. Leon was much shorter, but very wiry with long black hair. Dom was in between Carlisle and Leon in height, but possessed a thick body and large muscles to match. Jester was the same height as Dom, but was as wiry as Leon. Yet somehow, Jacobs decided, it all fit together perfectly. But he had other things to worry about.

Carlisle nodded to Jacobs, and said quietly, "It looks like we showed up just in time."

Jacobs looked back at his wounded men, and looked back at Carlisle, eyes deadly serious. He asked evenly, "Who the hell are you, and why the fuck do you have that powered armor and we don't? You're withholding…"

Carlisle's face went from one of sympathy to one of complete incredulity. Almost laughing at the absurdity of it, he interrupted, "Excuse me, but we just saved your entire command less than five minutes ago! Any sane person would be kissing our feet after saving his ass like we just did to yours! So show a little fucking respect!"

Jacobs took a step forward, and yelled back, "Respect you! You're the one betraying your country! How can I?!"

Leon took a step forward. His eyes burned like hot coals as he said quietly to Jacobs, "With all due respect, _Sir_, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. Just kindly shut your fucking mouth before I break your jaw."

Turning to Leon, Jacobs continued his rant, "Listen, you traitorous little shit…"

Two things happened at that moment. First, Leon took a step forward, and swung his elbow into Jacob's jaw, breaking it with a loud crack and knocking him to the ground. Second, the other three Horsemen drew their side-arms and leveled them at Jacob's forehead.

Scarcely able to believe how quickly events had progressed, Jacobs scrambled back, and climbed to his feet, unable to talk. Carlisle lowered his handgun, an antique Colt M1911, and lunged forward, grabbing Jacobs' collar and pulling him close until their faces were inches apart. Carlisle hissed, "No, listen to _me_, you sorry pile of crap. Don't call us traitors, your government abandoned us! We didn't betray your country, your country betrayed us! If you ever say something like that again to me or my squad mates, I will personally come and shoot you dead. Is that understood?"

Jacobs nodded frantically, so Carlisle shoved him to the ground again, turned around, and walked back to his armor. The others, too, all turned around and walked back, and got back into their armor. As Carlisle pulled his helmet back over his head, he said to himself, "Goddamn fanatics."

Closing the chest up, Carlisle wearily asked, "Everyone ready to go home?"

Everyone replied almost simultaneously, "Yeah."

In a horizontal line, the Four Horsemen jogged away from the battlefield, making the earth shake as they left. Jacobs, dusting himself, got up, and stormed away. As he pushed himself through the crowds of soldiers, one grunt said to his buddy, "Wonder what's got the Lieutenant so steamed?"

His buddy nodded at Jacobs' back, and replied, "Whatever it is, he's gonna hold that grudge for a long time."

Two hours later, the Four Horsemen came to a stop in front of a huge plateau. It looked like it was solid granite, nothing interesting. At least, it did until two doors, easily thirty feet tall, opened out of the rock to reveal the inside of what looked like a hangar. Quickly, they ran inside, and the doors closed behind them, leaving no trace where they had gone.

The hangar occupied several thousand square feet of the plateau, and contained all manner of vehicles as well as living quarters near the back. On one side of the hangar were four huge racks, which the Horsemen walked over to first. Unloading their weapons and dropping the half empty magazines to the ground, they set their autocannons on the racks, along with the unused rocket pods. Once they were disarmed, they walked over to the other side of the hangar, where there was some empty floor space. Then, they all got out of their powered armor, obviously grateful to get out of their metal counterparts.

Unzipping his coverall, Carlisle ran a hand through his hair, let out a deep breath, and said to the others, "Wonder what the deal was with that lieutenant?"

"He seemed a little hot-headed to me," Dom said, taking a seat in a lounge chair strategically placed next to his powered armor. "Maybe he's got a grudge to hold against his commander."

Jester replied sarcastically, "Yeah, and maybe his parents didn't love him as a child."

When Dom started to get up to beat the crap out of him, Carlisle and Leon stepped in between the two, with Carlisle saying to Dom, "Calm down dude, we can settle this tonight."

Once Dom sat back down, they continued their discussion. Leon, walking over to a small cooler and pulling out a bottle of water, said thoughtfully, "He believes in his government. Blindly. Probably thinks that they can do no wrong. That's probably why he joined up in the first place."

Walking back to the living quarters, Carlisle pulled a small photograph out of the pocket on the right shoulder of his coverall. It showed a beautiful young woman sitting on a stone bench with a small boutique of flowers in her hands. She wore a simple white dress, and smiled at the camera like it was the happiest moment of her life. Staring longingly at it, Carlisle didn't see the staircase to his room until he walked into it, making a loud bang that the others heard from their little circle. Ignoring the good-natured jokes thrown his way, he walked up the spiral staircase and entered his room.

The room was relatively well-furnished, with a large water-bed, drafting table, office chair, and holographic TV projector. A door near the side of the bed opened into a walk-in closet, which contained his clothes, equipment, and weapons. The communal bathroom lay underneath his room, and was equipped with a sink and mirror for each man and a large shower. Since they didn't have guests very often, there wasn't an extra guest room.

Pulling a flight harness out of his closet, he walked back down to the hangar floor and walked to one of the aircraft on the polished floor. It strongly resembled the Old Earth AV-8 Harrier jet, but used more advanced avionics, engines, and even thrust vectoring, the original reason for its development. Grabbing his helmet from its resting place next to his armor suit, he said to the others, "Hey, I gotta go into town. Be back in a few hours."

The three other guys got up and moved their lounge chair to the side of the hangar, giving Carlisle enough room to take off without knocking them off their feet. Tightening his helmet down and clipping the air mask in place, Carlisle gave the others a thumbs-up. So, Leon hit a lever on the side of the wall, opening the massive doors and allowing Carlisle to leave.

Throttling up the two massive engines, Carlisle lifted the jet off the ground, and slowly turning the thrust nozzles so they faced backward, left the hangar with a howl from the air turbines. As soon as the VTOL was clear of the doors, Jester hit the lever on the wall, and the doors slid closed. Leon looked at the closed door, and asked Dom, "Hey, was that the one with the new engines, the turbofans?"

Dom replied immediately, "Yeah, I helped him install'em. Why?"

Looking at his jet, which like his powered armor was painted a matte black, he said, "Because I want him to install those same ones in mine. More power."

Jester interrupted the conversation with several cans of beer, saying, "Anyway, fellas, how about that girl I met at that bar last time?"

Meanwhile, Carlisle banked the jet in several sharp turns, whispering to himself, "Gotta adjust the right rear nozzle. Sounds like the fan needs a little more work. Goddamn it!"

Straightening out, he shoved the throttle forward against its stops, pushing the jet through the air faster and faster until with a thundering boom, broke the sound barrier. Laughing to himself through the face mask, Carlisle pulled the dark visor over his eyes and leaned back into his leather seat.

Clicking the radio on, he said, "Akdrun Control Tower, this is Sierra Two-Six requesting permission to land."

A second later, the control tower replied, "Affirmative, Sierra Two-Six. Landing Bay 26 is open."

"Thank you, Control Tower. On approach for Landing Bay 26."

As he came within sight of the city, several automated air defense batteries went offline with the acknowledge of the control tower that Carlisle could land. Slowing his airspeed so he wouldn't cause undue commotion as he landed, he slowly spun the aircraft as it slowly dropped to the hot sand.


End file.
